Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE)

Thank you for teaching me how to teach ... Turns out you did a pretty amazing job!

Lorna Bradford Teacher of The Year in a Secondary School Pearson Teaching Awards 2015

The University of Sheffield has provided courses in initial teacher education for over 50 years. The PGDE course prepares students to teach across the 11-19 age range in English, Geography, History, Mathematics, Modern Languages and the Sciences, including Physics with Maths. For full information about our range of courses and the relevant application procedures please select "Applying" from the menu on the left. The School of Education has a strong national and international research profile.

The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) regularly carries out inspections of the department's secondary ITE course and the grades awarded confirm the consistent high quality of all aspects of the ITE courses, across all subjects.

Recruitment and selection

The PGDE course attracts a large number of applicants. Interview procedures and selection criteria have been negotiated within the partnership, with schools involved in most interviews. The majority of students have good qualifications in their subject specialisms around 70% having degrees of 2.1 or above. A very high proportion of students gain QTS with 120 masters credits and enter the teaching profession.

Structure of the secondary PGDE

In the University based part of the course, students spend roughly 75% of their time in subject groups and 25% in cross-curicular Educational and Professional Studies (EPS) groups. Secondary school experience commences during October, with students returning to the university on Fridays to share and reflect on experience. A longer period of school experience takes place from the end of January to the end of May. Students complete four assignments at Masters level, exploring issues and school experience through research investigations and critical reflection. In the summer term, students undertake an Enrichment or Enhancement Experience in a different educational context.

Partnership arrangements

Since 1993, the School of Education has negotiated partnership agreements with local schools, providing continuity and stability. We currently have over 40 schools in our partnership enabling us to offer an excellent range of school experiences. We also work in partnership with four local School Direct school clusters (see School Direct PGDE) to offer a range of routes to meet individual needs. Our provider led and School Direct students all have the same school experience opportunities. Students are often placed in subject pairs for school experience, with most partner schools taking pairs of students in two or more subjects. Each school has an Associate University Tutor (AUT) responsible for all students and Associate University Mentors (AUM) responsible for the students in their subject areas. AUTs and AUMs are responsible for weekly sessions for students during school experience.

Attendance at the twice-yearly planning and development training held at the university for AUTs and AUMs is very high. The partner schools have the major responsibility for assessing school experience and are supported by university subject tutors who visit schools on at least three occasions to observe and debrief student teachers and to assure the quality of the student experience. The university has responsibility for assessing all assignments including the Enrichment or Enhancement Experience report.